Holiday Giving: Prettifying Your Jars + Giveaway

Judging by Thanksgiving’s rapid approach and the number of Black Friday commercials playing on TV, we are now officially in the thick of the holiday season. This means that it’s time to start thinking seriously about gift giving.

In my household (and I suspect in many of yours as well), this means taking stock of the jams and pickles that are good enough to give and spending a little time trying to make them presentable (because my standard labeling method is a quick scrawl across the top of the lid).

Because my skills as a crafter and designer quite lousy (I have many other talents, but a visual artist I am not), I’ve taken to outsourcing my labels. Here are some folks that make lovely tags, labels, and stickers that will have you set for gift giving in no time.

Don’t forget to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to check out the giveaway!

RiverDog Prints makes customizable canning jar toppers and labels, as well as printable recipe cards, gift tags and even really cute recipe dividers (for those cards that you ordered). Shop owner Cyn isn’t just a designer, she’s also a canner herself, so she understands what works on a jar and what doesn’t. Her Etsy shop can be found here.

For a touch of whimsey, nothing tops the hand-sewn jar toppers from Sew Love the Day. You can get them themed for your particular preserve, or you can get ones for the holidays that feature bows, baubles, and peppermint candies. They are even more adorable in person.

First off, I apologize for the lousy picture. These labels are hard to photograph not on jars and I could not muster the energy to shrink one to a jar earlier today (I’m fighting a bit of a cold). The way they work is that you write the contents on the label, as well as the month and date when the product was made. Then, you slip it around the jar and dip the jar, label and all into hot water.

The temperature change causes the label snug up around the jar, in a style reminiscent of Shrinky Dinks. Once you’ve eaten everything in the jar, all you have to do is slip a knife under the label, make a little slit and it pulls right off. Because there’s no glue involved, you never have to scrape any sticky residue away. They come in a variety of different sizes and cost $5.49 for 36. It’s a seriously good deal. Click here to see all the size and design options.

Finally, for those of you who are slightly more crafty than I, this kit that allows you to customize your fancy labels might be the thing for you. These are made by Jigsaw Graphics, a company based in Portland, Oregon (my home town!) and are pretty darn nifty. The labels can be used either with permanent markers or with dry erase ones (if you want to reuse them). Click here to check out all the buying options.

The giveaway goodies:
Once Upon Supplies: 20 mason jar labels, atching baker’s twine, and 20 gift tags.
RiverDog Prints: A collection of labels and tags.
Sew Love The Day: Your choice of three sets of six toppers.
Modern Harvest: A variety pack of labels.
Jigsaw Graphics: Jar kit with labels, tags, markers, and hemp string.

Here’s how to enter:

Leave a comment on this post and share how you label your jars for gifting.

Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, November 23, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog over the weekend.

Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents.

One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post. I do not accept submissions via email.

Disclosure: These five vendors provided samples for review and photography, as well as units for giveaway. However, they did not pay to be included in this post and my opinions about their products were all my own.

After the jars are sealed and cooled, I unscrew the bands and add a second lid (a used one that I won’t use for canning again), rubber-side up because this side is white, on which I’ve written the contents and date. Then I re-screw the band. This temporarily uses up some of the old lids that accumulate when one does a lot of canning.

I cover the lid with funky fabric and tie it up with a bow of my handspun yarn. Love all these labels! I’m going to be canning meyer lemon marmalade this weekend for gifts with the windfall of lemons we’ve got this year.

I label my jars with a black sharpie for contents and date. This year I purchased brown craft paper hang tags and made them “vintage” by dipping them in brewed vanilla coffee with cinnamon and nutmeg(they smell amazing). Dried the tags in a warm oven and stamped them with the contents. I covered the top with a blue and tan checked pattern fabric (pinked edges) and tied the tags on with twine. Cute, cute, cute & oh so country! OH, for pickles I tied on olive/pickle forks and for jams, vintage jelly spoons. I am still looking for vintage serving spoons to tie on the jars of salsa. I just started canning this summer but once I got started I just couldn’t stop! Your book is my favorite Marisa and I am giving a copy to my sister in law for Christmas. I think she will love it. I’d love the labels to do a “modern” theme! 😉

I like to wrap mine with garden twine and give it a big bow (still with sharpie across the top). I have a friend who spray painted a bunch of puzzle pieces silver and wrote the jam name on the puzzle pieces in sharpie and put that on the jar, which I just might steal an idea similar to that. This post gave me lots of inspiration as jars of things are my primary holiday gifts that will be given.